Mum fighting to stay with son ordered to leave Australia

A single mother will be torn apart from her eight-year-old Australian-born son after she was given final deportation orders to leave the country in three weeks’ time.

Brisbane aged care worker Bernadette Romulo has also been banned from re-entering the country for three years, meaning she will not see her son Giro again until he is 11 years old.

Ms Romulo and her two daughters from a previous relationship, aged 12 and 13, have lived in Australia for the past 11 years but are being deported to the Philippines after their application for permanent residency was rejected.

The distraught mother’s appeal for a ministerial intervention into her visa case was dismissed by Assistant Minister for Home Affairs Alex Hawke last December but she has been given several extensions on her departure date over the past few months amid national media coverage of her plight.

However, Ms Romulo was last week told that she must leave the country by July 11 and show proof she has bought plane tickets by July 5.

Bernadette Romulo and her son Giro. (Photo: Bernadette Romulo) (Supplied)

Ms Romulo said she was shattered when she heard the news and cried for hours.

“It’s very. Very cruel. What have I done wrong to deserve this, or my son?” Ms Romulo told nine.com.au.

“Giro is suffering. He has become very clingy, he hugs me at night. He wakes up angry. The stress is so overwhelming, I just want to run away but of course I can’t do that.”

Ms Romulo initially came to Australia in 2006 with her first husband and their daughters as a dependent on his skilled 457 visa.

They separated and she met Giro’s Filipino-Australian father.

Although Ms Romulo has been Giro’s primary carer since she broke up with Giro’s father, Giro is unable to leave the country due to partial custody arrangements.

Ms Romulo’s lawyer, Angus Francis, who is working on her case pro bono, said the chances of the courts granting Ms Romulo custody of her son in the Philippines were slim, because of the risk she could refuse contact with his father once she was in a country that was not part of the Hague convention.

Mr Francis told nine.com.au last month that this was a devastating case and he would be fighting for his client right up until the moment she was put on a plane.

“The minister has the power to intervene at any stage,” Mr Francis said.

Bernadette Romulo pictured far right and with her daughters Ashnah (left) and Dabbie (right) and her son Giro. (Photo: Bernadette Romulo) (Supplied)

“It’s in Australia’s interests that we keep Australian families together. That we don’t rip apart a mother and her child. This is why the minister has these powers.”

When questioned by reporters about Ms Romulo’s case, Home Affairs Office minister Peter Dutton said his department often faced tough decisions.

Mr Dutton urged people to cut through emotions and cases attracting “cheap TV” to look at the facts.

“People have been given ample notice over a long period of time to prepare themselves to depart, they refuse to depart, then try and string it out through a pointless exercise through court,” he told reporters.

“But nonetheless it delays their departure, and then they try and make it look more acute at the end stages.”

Mr Hawke's office said two weeks ago the case had already been comprehensively assessed by the department and the assistant minister only intervenes in a "relatively small number of cases".

A letter Giro wrote to his mother for Mother's Day. (Photo: Bernadette Romulo) (Supplied)

"Child custody matters are beyond the scope of this department," it said in a statement.

Last month before her last visa extension, Ms Romulo shared on Facebook a distressing letter Giro had written her for Mother’s Day, thinking he may not be with her on the day.

The letter read: “Dear mummy. You have a heart better than a universe and love from Pluto to Venus. You are smarter than Einstein and greatly lovable. You are more important to me than anything else. I hope your memory will live on forever. Some people don’t like you while others would do anything to make you happy. I’m one of those people. Xoxo”

Ms Romulo said her daughters were also greatly distressed at having to leave their younger brother and the only home they have ever known.

“They are sad, they are really sad. They are asking me what is going to happen to Giro when we leave because they are his big sisters. They are asking me what is life like in the Philippines. They don’t know how to speak the language there.

It’s really hard, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
An online petition started by Ms Romulo in which she pleads with Mr Dutton to allow her to stay in the country with Giro has so far collected more than 36,000 signatures.